Національна академія внутрішніх справ

At the invitation of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, the assistant professor of the Department of Criminal Law of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant Colonel of the police Mykhailo Akimov, took part in the trainings for trainers "Countering hate crimes (for law enforcement officers)" on July 3-5, 2019.

This event is held annually by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights at its own headquarters and aims to strengthen the staffing capacity of law enforcement agencies (in particular, educational institutions that train police officers) by training specialists (selected on the basis of existing pedagogical and practical experience) for this program to further cascade the acquired knowledge and experience in their own countries.

Currently training for the members of police, prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies under this program has already been successfully implemented in 16 OSCE member states. To the participation in the training was invited 16 practitioners, teachers and members of non-governmental organizations from the Austrian Republic, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, Georgia, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Norway, the Portuguese Republic, Romania, the Republic of Turkey, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Specialists from Great Britain and the Republic of Poland were involved as trainers.

Before the beginning of the three-day study in English, the participants were previously acquainted with the content of the course, which envisaged assimilation of the following topics by the students:

- estimates, statements and stereotypes;

- diversity and equality as protected characteristics;

- definition, international legal regulation and national legislation on crimes committed on the basis of hatred;

- the impact of hate crimes on society and the role of law enforcement agencies in preventing them;

- public events with mass participation of citizens as a possible place (situation) for hate crimes;

- assessment of evidence (indicators of bias);

- response and investigation of crimes committed on the basis of hatred;

- obstacles in the investigation of crimes committed on the basis of hatred and how to overcome them.

Case studies include hate crimes and linguistic hostility in the OSCE member states, relevant cases reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights.

After that, the participants, divided on pairs, presented separate training modules. The representative from Ukraine, together with the representative from the Czech Republic (lawyer and activist of the human rights movement), successfully presented a module on assessments, allegations and stereotypes as prerequisites for the emergence of bias motives for hate crimes.

According to the results of the successful implementation of the training program, Lt. Col. M.O. Akimov received a certificate of the trainer.

The Department of Criminal Law